Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1887-11-05
THEPAN0RAMA'S GROWTH
eANvARD'S THREE MILES OF CANVAS
AND THE SHOW OF TO-DAY.

The Illusions of the Round House Pan
orama-Why They are SO Effective
Mystery of the Cyelorama a Battle r
Scene. "
The man who will confess to a recolle 'tion
of the time when Banvari's panorama o.
the Mississippi was first unfOlded to the ad-
miratlon of the public may be suspected of
being either married man, to whom youth {
rs no object, or a bachelor so long buffeted on
the sea of ceibacy that lie has no hope of |
ever reaching port. 1t was n long time ago,
so long that even che multitude of limitations
that followed the original Banvanl, covering
journeys by land ocean, and river over al
most half the globe, have all vanished into
the attics and been forgotten. 1t was report
ed that there were three miles of canvas in
Banvard's panorama. That was probably a
managerial fiction !; but it is none the less
certain that there We're n great many yards.
1t took hours 10 reel the picture off before the
eyes of admiling spectators, and a lecturer
| with practiced lungs was nee led TO eXpatiate
| on its beauties. But there were not many
| beauties after all The Mississippi river,
though a long river, runs for the most part
| through IA fiat country, and is navigated by
flat boats which it may or may not be worth
while to try aud make picturesque. But tie
motives of Banvard were patriotic and pc
cuniary rather than artistic. The biggest |
river in the world was entitled to the biggest /
picture. and it was reasonable to suppose that |
the two attractions combined would bring |
out the biggest Jhroags ui spectators that |
ever attended an art exhibition.
| However far bark in the uncertain mast the |
origin of the fixed panorama may be traced, |
| there is no doubt that the panorama on roll
eIs is modern conception. There could he
little doubt either from the beginning that
its career was destined to be brief, for life ia
too short to paint pictures by the acre that
will be good enough TO endure. But the idea
seems to have been susceptible of develop
'neut. The cyclorama called also panorama,
now holds tine field vacated by its preie
ceSSOr.
Between the panorama and the cycloralna
there is. a wide distinction The former car
ried you upon Il long voyage and showed Il
succession of scenes and you were supposed
to sail by on the deck of some steamer; but
the latter sets you down, or rather sets you
up, in the middle of a fixed landscape made
memorable by some historical event, and
o. gives a picture of incidents that can be re
called only by the Imagination. The cyclo-
. rama is an invasion of the field of historical
painting, therefore, and must be tested by
severer canons of criticism than the pano-
4 rama.
There are plenty of men who believe in the
new form of entertainment, and who seem
: willing to risk their dollars on its success.
Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago, st. Paul and
Denver have each a battle of Gettysburg;
and, in this city, a round house is being
erected for the exhibition of picture Of the
same event. Washington, much to the third
& confusion of the Union army, has its Bull
Run, st Louis and Kansas City their Mis-
lzfonary Ridge. San Francisco its Nicllshurg
le New Orleans its siege of Paris, and Miuneap
+ oils its Atlanta Chicago has also u battle Of
Shiloh
At the first view of the spectator the CYCLIC
rama seems to be q mystery. 1t is appaI-
U emily an absolute reproduction of the scene
represented. the objects seeming equal in size
with the original objects, and the space GOV
1T cred equally great. A circular building less
r ihan 100 feet in diameter and not much more
3 than fifty feet in elevation, expands TO the
10 dimensions Of the space that can be covered
y. 5v the eye in an open landscape, and reaches
=" upward to the clouds A portion Of the fore
ground, it is very well known, is composed of
- real figures and objects: hut the illusion upuI
: tie painted canvas is SO perfect that this
= painted figures seem hardly less oljectIv,
a than the real figures, and without the mos
81 careful scrutiny the dividing line cannot b,
u distinguished. Surely, the spectator thinks
n there must he some wonderful secret know
Ds ouly TO the painter in this illusion
q But there is probably no secret deeper than
n the secret which has caused all art to b
I called mystery. Shut out the real object
III in the foreground from the eye and the dis
81 tances in tile perspective will not be dimin
81 ished nor the figures ON the canvas rendered
Z less strong in their relief. The only servic
4. that seems to be rendered by the ohjectiv
N portions of the foreground is to bring tn
= entire landscape to the feet of the spectato
and to shut out the intervening space of bar
NJ, floor carpet that would otherwise help t
in break the illusion. He is surrounded by tn
int picture above, below and upon all sides, an
zen is permitted to see no other object He stand
lux lux upon a platform that seems to be erected i
the very center of the field delineated Thi
Is doubtless aids to render the scene more rt
al alistic, but it adds nothing to relief or pei
spective. The great size of the picture
reaching practically from the foot of ii
platform to the roof, distance of about II
III feet is probably the chief cause Of the appa
=" emily wonderful expansion of space.
The cyclorama will not prove a more el
is during form of entertainment than the PAM
uet rama unless it is produced with a more arti
tic motive than controlled the production
its predecessor There is no merit in relic
a. Save to the extent that it results from perfe
modelling, where it is more properly termt
oil af iu tpI Ia arii
fl as an artistic merit. The means for its q
tainment are merely mechanical and they
not enter into the motives that govern Il
production of really fine art. Then, agai
}uL },., the cyclorama is very restricted in its lie
and and demands constant succession of artist
anachronisms and the mispacing. of incider
~ to be effective.
% lar Thus far the painters of these pictures ha
ne5 essayed only battle scenes, and it is field
g, c peculiar hardship. A battle field, represent
'H' literally as it looks to the eye, would prove
socs very tame affair Notwithstanding all til
we hear aOuut personal exposure aud hero
deeds, the men intent OH glorious feats
arms generally trying to keep out
sight, hiding in the woods and behind rid.
and fences for the purpose, of course, of {
Rcuring their numbers Except when ST
a charge u man may fight all day with hars
u look at the face of an enemy. The hnc
battle made by great armies is usually f'
p< OF Ave miles long with obstructions of va
Gus kinds on the line of sight, 1t is son
ors, times the case that one flank of an army
n very desperate fight and wins vic
, when the men on the other flank can hur'
he convinced that anything more than lit
skirnlishing had been done, Even the cha
is not what the Imagination paints it. t
gray, black, blue or green line of troops,
H. of the extreinites so distant as to be bar
visible does not cut very imposing fig
. running across a heR mile of open ii
against an invisible foe. Only the fashi
N i smoking batteries on the ridges and hilit
are grand Particular incidents of a la
are about all that can I've painted effective
and they Iuust all be represented in the f
n ! ground New York Sun.
Rraea TN